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Oral arg. – Miss.S.Ct. – July 23, 2014 (sounds juicy)

The Court will hear at 10:00 a.m. today the case of In the Matter of the Administration of the Estate of Norma Crowell
Two sisters, Caron Crowell and Jackie Trotter, have been fighting over their mother’s estate before she died.
Norma, known as Allene, died in 2006. Before her death, Caron was taking care of her mother and in 2000 Caron was given power of attorney over her mother’s estate. Jackie lived in North Carolina. After Allene’s death, Jackie claimed that Caron had used her confidential relationship with Allene to loot the estate. At some point Jackie died and her estate has been substituted. In the end, the chancellor divided the estate equally but Caron was found to have taken $305,854 to which she was not entitled. So Caron appeals. Jackie cross appeals.

This promises more drama than an episode of Real Housewives. I don’t have time to read it all but Jackie’s brief alleges that the original judge recused herself after Caron was arrested after going to the nursing home of the judge’s mother (that sounds eerily familiar). The charges were passed to the file after Caron agreed to leave the judge’s family alone.

So far, the only interesting part of this is that when Trotter’s attorney starts to argue, Caron Crowell starts speaking from the audience. She is asked to come to the podium. When asked if she wants to represent herself, she says no and is invited to sit down. Never seen that before.
Towards the end, I’m pretty sure I heard Trotter’s attorney say that Caron testified she had consulted 42 lawyers and that one said to use the POA to take all the money and another told her to write a new will. Which Caron did.